/**
 * Copyright 2010 Nicholas Blair, Eric Dalquist
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package com.googlecode.ehcache.annotations.key;

import java.io.Serializable;

import org.aopalliance.intercept.MethodInvocation;

/**
 * <p>
 * Generates a unique key based on the description of an invocation to an
 * intercepted method.
 * </p>
 * 
 * @author Alex Ruiz
 */
public interface CacheKeyGenerator<T extends Serializable> {

    /**
     * Generates the key for a cache entry.
     * 
     * @param methodInvocation the description of an invocation to the intercepted method.
     * @return the created key, will never be null and will be {@link Serializable}
     */
    T generateKey(MethodInvocation methodInvocation);
}